The Rise and Fall of Professional Bowling

Yes.

I was ten pin bowling one night. I turned to the girl I was with and pronounced.

Me da Big Lebowski.

She looked at me and said, more like the Big Boobski.

More like Gutter Ball Gus.
 
parallels? I read until it said one guy got a million dollar endorsement:sorry: deal(7.6mil today), stopped comparing it to pool there.
 
DeadStick said:
Kind of old? It was published today, and includes earnings updated as of Jan 2014.
Click to expand...

Sorry I just glanced through it and saw 1988 under a picture, my bad.
Then maybe their not doing better, that's to bad.

Pool and Bowling it seems were both in there hay day in about
the same time frame, when looking back now.

Looking on the bright side when both these sports were in
their hay day they both were on net work TV.
What I'd like to think is if some how they can get back there
they will both be revived and they will thrive once again.
As I've spent much of my life in bowling lanes and pool rooms.

Hopefully Bowling and Pool will both make a come back soon,
as it's a kind of crushing thought to even think that times have
changed so much that there is no place for the elite in either sport.

The World has changed a lot in what seems like a short while
the day that dedication, and lots of practice and hard work to
get to the top of any sport is no longer valued will be a sad
day indeed. I hope we are not beginning to see a new World
where that's the case.

The article was right too, there used to be a different Bowling lanes every night of the week
where there was good action. Gambled against Iggy several times and he was a real character,
was on the same team with Ernie two seasons, had lunch with Carmen and Don, and got to know
Mike a little too, he was one of my favorites.

PS, I just took the time to read the article and just wanted to say thanks for posting it
as it really brought back some good memories. Thanks !
 
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bowling

itsfroze said:
Sorry I just glanced through it and saw 1988 under a picture, my bad.
Then maybe their not doing better, that's to bad.

Pool and Bowling it seems were both in there hay day in about
the same time frame, when looking back now.

Looking on the bright side when both these sports were in
their hay day they both were on net work TV.
What I'd like to think is if some how they can get back there
they will both be revived and they will thrive once again.
As I've spent much of my life in bowling lanes and pool rooms.

Hopefully Bowling and Pool will both make a come back soon,
as it's a kind of crushing thought to even think that times have
changed so much that there is no place for the elite in either sport.

The World has changed a lot in what seems like a short while
the day that dedication, and lots of practice and hard work to
get to the top of any sport is no longer valued will be a sad
day indeed. I hope we are not beginning to see a new World
where that's the case.

The article was right too, there used to be a different Bowling lanes every night of the week
where there was good action. Gambled against Iggy several times and he was a real character,
was on the same team with Ernie two seasons, had lunch with Carmen and Don, and got to know
Mike a little too, he was one of my favorites.

PS, I just took the time to read the article and just wanted to say thanks for posting it
as it really brought back some good memories. Thanks !
Click to expand...

As an active bowler from 1955-1973, a pool player since '55 as well, and a promoter of both, I think I have some understanding as to why bowling had a "heyday" that actually came after the real heyday of billiards (a century ago) and before the last heyday of pool, - 70s to '90s.

Do a search here for "bowling" and you'll find numerous threads and comments, where I go into detail about the how and why of these "heydays".
 
Maybe both sports would have been better off if they had stayed together instead of going off on their own. I can remember a handful of bowling alleys that had Gold Crowns in them when I was a kid. Today you're lucky if the bowling alley even has a single bar table.
 
The parallels are obvious. Kids and adults have way more alternative means of entertainment today. Why take up a hobby/sport that takes tons of work to achieve a mediocre level of expertise when you can spend a couple hundred dollars on an xbox and sit on your butt at home and play it? When I was a kid, your entertainment options were a pick up baseball or basketball game. Pool and bowling were a great treat because they cost money. Try finding a 15 year old today that thinks playing pool is a treat.
 
Actually, in making comparisons to other sports, bowling is probably one of the closest to pool in a couple of key regards. Most notable among them to me is that that there is no direct interaction between the players - one has the lane and the other is in the chair. In bowling there is actually less defense since there is no ability to influence the leave you give your opponent.

One thing about bowling that is still different than pool is the scoring system allows for competitors to play against the field rather than being limited to match play only, which is the case with all the most popular pool games.

Always thought it would be interesting to hold a tournament with a game that allowed for players to compete against the field, like Fargo or something similar. At least use this to establish a cut, then the remaining players play whatever (9/10 Ball, 8 Ball, 14.1, etc.) in match play format. This is how pro bowling was always conducted. There would be some logistical advantages to holding a tournament this way. The time required could more easily be managed by altering the number of games played during qualifying. Theoretically you could get a large field event done in less time than with conventional match play.
 
Professional Bowling still exists?

I could make a strike once in a while in bowling.....just too bad it usually wasn't in my lane!
 
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